Dagon - gigantic sea deity from Cthulhu Mythos, ruler of Deep Ones. It appears in two stories written by Howard Phillips Lovecraft and in works of other authors writing about Mythos.

'With only a slight churning to mark its rise to the surface, the thing slid into view above the dark waters. Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, it darted like a stupendous monster of nightmares to the monolith, about which it flung its gigantic scaly arms, the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measured sounds. ' H.P. Lovecraft - Dagon.

Some facts. This miniature is HUGE. It is clearly visible on the photo with cultist in 28 mm scale. It is weighty too (310 g). Miniature, sculpted by Robert Kurek, depicts sea god of the deep waters, holding tight the stone monument. I especially like the fishy monster head, with clearly visible tooth, two pairs of round eyes and gills hidden under the fleshy folds of the skin. Head is perfect representation of predatory sea creture, living in the depths for untold millenias, both alien and frightening. I also really like legs and arms of this creature - long fingers ended with claws and webbed foot. Take a look at the webbed crests on the back and legs too - nice details I think.

Cast is of really high quality, details are sharp and clean. There are some tiny holes visible in two or three areas of the cast, which will have to be filled with greenstuff, but nothing serious or detail-damaging. No mould lines, no overlaps. All one need to to is to fill small holes, wash cast with soap and warm water nad basecoat it. Can't wait to paint it.

Second of the High Elves miniatures, painted by me as a part of barter trade (my painting for your miniatures). You can see first painted miniature, Elven Everqueen, here. Really nice sculpt of Elven Ranger from one of the supplements for "Warhammer Quest" game, released back in 1995. It is still very nice looking miniature, maybe slightly too flat for today's tastes, but well... it was released close to 20 years ago and it was a state of the art then. I think both myself and Mormeg don't have this particular miniature in our collections, so it was a good oppurtunity to paint one. I've got it with very crude, thick black undercoat painted on, so my first task was to remove it. Unfortunately, small residues of paint were left in some areas and I was unable to remove them. Those imperfections are barely visible (certainly not on the photos) but still, I know that they are somewhere there areas looking like painted with texture paint;)

I tried to stick to some basic rules while painting. Limited color palette, one traditionally reserved for original High Elves from WFB, with red as additional color, visible mainly on gems. Miniature's cloak would be a great area to paint some freehands or textures onto or into it, but well - it would take at least few more hours - not enough for agreed price.

I'm the least happy with runes visible on the blades. I even considering repainting them with red for a moment but finally settled with blue, as red would unbalance color scheme too much in my opinion.

Grom's Goblin Guard is third Regiment of Renown released by Games Workshop in mid eighties. This unit was released in two different versions.

Grom initiated the Goblin Wars when he slew Wulfrun Willowhand, King of the Northern Dwarfs, in a drunken brawl. The cause of the dispute is not recorded, although the relative merits of Old Sam's Brown and Bugman's Best may have been responsible. Grom led the armies of the Goblins in some of their most notable victories, for a Goblin he was a fine tactician and soldier. He was not a pure bred Goblin but of mixed ancestry and presented the appearance almost of an especially ugly Ogre. He was known as 'The Paunch of Misty Mountain' because he was so fat.

Grom selected his guard from the dregs of Goblin society - the outcasts; creatures who were half Goblin and half Orc. These guards were especially large and vicious. Their armour was scavenged from the early battlefields of the war, and their weaponry was forged at the Dwarf smithy of Zhuf Field after its fall to Grom's armies.

Grom was killed in the first onslaught on the Dwarf fortress of the Middenheim. From then on they were led by the regimental Champion, Crud Longbone. Crud was an unusually tall, thin and lanky Goblin with a distinctively long nose. Crud and the remainder of Grom's guards were exterminated at the final battle of the war at Mad Dog Pass.

SHIELD: Assorted shield patterns prevail. Grom's shield depicts the death of Wilfrun Willowhand, with a great deal of blood and the fabled toasting fork very much in evidence.

BATTLECRY: 'Yaaaghhhruuuuuugh' - Goblins are not known for their eloquence.

LEADER: Grom the Paunch of Misty Mountain. Grom has the attributes of a Major Night Goblin Hero, except that his layers of fat give him a Toughness of D and 4 Wounds.

DEEDS: Apart from starting the Goblin Wars, Grom is now chiefly remembered for the Atrocities of Zhuf Field. Many Dwarf captives were taken on this occasion, but all were doomed to a horrible death. On every day for the following month Grom had a hundred Dwarfs brought before him. He personally sat on each captive until the victim died of suffocation.

A tak wyglądał Grom w czasach 4. edycji, kiedy jego historia uległa naprawdę daleko idącym zmianom...And here we have Grom the Paunch from the rth edition era, when his history was changed and completely rewritten...

Slowly I'm finishing painting commissioned group of American War of Independence militiamen - large part of this group is visible in the earlier note. The one miniature visible here, the one with such a stern face, is the part of the last group of miniatures, which are being painted in a slightly different colors. I think that overal tone of the whole unit is a little too bright so the final six miniatures are darker. Today's miniature wears, for example, a faded black coat.

Well, it is almost the end of this commission. There are still four miniatures waiting for adding some minor details but as I'm giving whole lot to the owner tomorrow, I won't be able to make a final, group photos. As it turns out, I don't really have enough room to make such "cinematic" shots.... Photos below are the only ones left after deleting the worst of them (like 90% of all). Let me say that I wasn't aware how big this group is. And I think that they look much better as a group then as single miniatures.

Today is something entirely different then my usual entries. Nothing dark, nothing hideous, nothing barking to the moon or howling its bloodlust. High Elf miniature and - more specifically - Alarielle the Everqueen. Miniature is the older version of this character, released some fifteen years ago. It was painted in exchange for some undead miniatures missing from my collection. Well... what can I write about painting. I couldn't paint this figure to my highest level due to exchange worth. At the same time, I wanted Alarielle to look, simply, good. Two very different, contrary strivings, results will be judged by the owner. I just hope he will be satisfied. And one more note - I think that such delicate miniatures would be better looking painted in NMM, as NMM finish is much more gentle then hard, metallic finish of the traditional paints.

My brother is chain-painting orcs lately, finishing his Mordor orcs in batches. This one is the last from the first four painted, next ones are already finished - and I'm really glad of it. Hero of today's entry is another lowly plastic orc, made a little different thanks to Chaos Marauders shield, and slight reposition and conversion of the spear.